CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNN LOU DOBBS TONIGHT - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

DOBBS: Imagine that. Something not done at the Department of Homeland Security, which is the biggest joke in the federal government. And there's a lot of competition for the standard. Thank you very much. Lisa Sylvester reporting from Washington.

The Senate today voted overwhelmingly to build hundreds of miles of new fencing along the U.S. border with Mexico, the Senate approving almost $2 billion for the construction of 370 miles of new triple layer fencing. The vote is a major victory for Senator Jeff Sessions who has fought tirelessly to free up funds for new border fencing. Senator Sessions joins us here tomorrow evening. We hope you'll be with us as well.

Local governments across this country have had it. They're struggling to provide health care, education and other expensive social services to illegal aliens. The House Judiciary Committee today heard new evidence that taxpayers will see those costs skyrocket if the Senate's Illegal Alien Amnesty Bill were to become law. Congressman Darrell Issa of California, member of the Judiciary Committee, joins us tonight from San Diego where today's hearing was held. Good to have you here.

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Thanks for having me on, Lou.

DOBBS: Congressman the idea of these costs. We've been reporting on the burden on American taxpayers. We've been reporting on this broadcast who the real victims are, taxpayers, working men and women in this country and their families. The costs, what did you learn today about the burden on American taxpayers?

ISSA: Lou, we learned today really was that none of the panelists, including those from the other side of the aisle, really could make the case that it wasn't a cost. Just the opposite. What they were trying to do was get into other factors, talk about fairness and try to be partisan. What we're really focusing on here is, to a great extent, the fact that out of 6 billion people on the face of the earth, 99 percent of all the people who come to this country illegally are coming from one country. That's a disservice to the Statue of Liberty. It's a disservice to the tradition we've had of legal immigration, of taking those that we can absorb in a reasonable and orderly fashion.

It's the lack of orderly fashion that creates this problem, Lou. It's the lack of orderly fashion that the House bill is trying to create by having real enforcement. We can have a discussion on how many people immigrate to this country. We cannot have is a discussion as to whether or not we enforce our laws.

DOBBS: Why is, in your judgment, the Senate or the Republican leadership coupled with the Democratic members of the Senate and over the wishes of the Senate's Republican majority, passed an amnesty bill that is so clearly targeted at taxpayers who have to pay the onerous costs of illegal immigration and take into account none of the real victims here, taxpayers, American taxpayers, working men and women who are seeing their wages depressed by $200 billion a year. Why does this Congress, Congressman, continue to permit this kind of nonsense to go on? Some sort of silly Kabuki (ph) dance that the national media follows along like guppies feeding on the surface.

ISSA: Well, you know, Lou, there's never been a time more than today for me to say, let's not talk the word Congress, let's talk House and Senate. The House overwhelmingly wants enforcement and opposing an amnesty because it's been tried before and failed. The Senate, I'll take them at their face value. I won't assume the worst, but the Senate has made a very different decision. There's an intervening election that may very well occur before this is settled. That's going to be for the voters to make a strong statement, a statement toward many of those senators that they truly do not agree, that in fact we may be able to expand guest worker programs. We can't do it by having a broad amnesty as a starting point. That's where the House has pushed back.

DOBBS: Congressman, you're quite right on the distinction between House and Senate. I defer to your judgment and your definition. It's the correct one on that. But you've also got a president who is basically saying, open up the doors, it doesn't matter about enforcing laws or our border. I mean, that's got to leave your stomach in some turmoil, doesn't it?

ISSA: It does. And I take the president at his word that it is truly his compassionate conservatism.

DOBBS: I don't care what it is. It's hurting a lot of folks.

ISSA: Lou, you're right. A lot of people who have rallied around the president, to be honest, are just fighting for a special interest vote. They're fighting for those who would vote because of an amnesty. I think the most important thing that the House has done is said, and I have 30 percent Hispanic in my district, but we've made it very clear that we're going to do what's right for the next generation, not what's right for the next election, particularly not what's right for the next presidential election, which I think is what a lot of those senators are thinking about.

DOBBS: And it has been demonstrated in elections and polls across the country, most Hispanics, most Americans who happen to be Hispanic want to see border security and they want to see rational immigration policy carried out by this country.

ISSA: Absolutely.

DOBBS: Congressman Darrell Issa, great to have you with us. We appreciate it.

ISSA: Thank you, Lou.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0608/02/ldt.01.html